In modern laser printers, media sheets are picked from input sources (paper trays) in a one-at-a-time fashion. The feeding of these media sheets are controlled such that there will exist a physical gap between consecutive sheets being picked. A number of sensors are provided in the paper path of the printer that allow for sensing the presence of media at particular locations.
More information about media location can be gained with a large number of sensors at a large number of locations; having fewer sensors provides cost and simplicity benefits. In practice, the number of sensors in a laser printer tends to be sensors placed only at critical locations in the paper path. Media sheets are therefore tracked through the printer by observing the transitions of these sensors with respect to time (or distance), and position is predicted based on time (or distance) when no transitions are occurring. When feeding multiple sheets of media consecutively, the existence of a physical gap between consecutive sheets is critical to the control in order for the needed sensor transitions to occur. When sensor transitions do not occur within a reasonable amount of time from when they are expected, the printer engine control will determine that a fault condition exists, such as an empty paper tray or a paper jam.
The particular type of fault condition that this invention addresses is the condition where a sensor indicates that media has been present at the sensor location for too long. Possible causes for a sensor being covered too long include: 1) A sheet over the sensor is not moving as expected (stalled, slipping, or physically jammed); 2) Paper that is longer than the expected length; 3) No gap present between two or more sheets; and 4) Overlapping/shingled sheets. In current laser printers when this sort of fault condition is detected, printing operation is stopped, a paper jam message is posted, and user intervention is required to clear media sheets from the printer.
The architecture of the particular printer for which this invention is being disclosed includes the following position sensors (in the order in which paper encounters them during printing operation): 1) A manual feed sensor, located at a point in the paper path near the manual feed slot; and 2) An input sensor, located at a point in the paper path near the imaging location. The architecture also includes a feed roll system located just beyond the manual feed sensor that is selectively driven by the primary printer drive system, through a clutch (alternately, by a separate motor).
In normal printer operation, once a sheet is picked from a paper source, the engine control tracks it through the printer. Information from the sensors and predicted sheet location information is used to determine where the sheet is located at any point in time. The primary pieces of information used to determine that paper is properly moving through the printers paper path are:    1.) The geometry of the paper path.    2.) The speed that media moves through the paper path.    3.) The locations of each of the sensors in the paper path.    4.) The instantaneous state of each of the sensors.    5.) The time that each sheet of media was picked from a media source    6.) An expected length of each sheet of media being picked.
With this information, the engine control can determine when each media sheet edge should be seen at each sensor location. Any failure of the sensor transitions to be seen within some reasonable tolerance of the predicted times indicates a fault condition.
This invention involves the fault condition when the manual feed sensor is covered for a period of time that is too long given the expected length of the media being fed. The manual feed sensor is the first sensor encountered by a sheet after it is picked. When the engine is consecutively picking media from a source, the manual feed sensor will be “made” by a sheet when the leading edge of that sheet reaches the sensor position. Similarly, the manual feed sensor will be “broken” by a sheet when the trailing edge of that sheet reaches the sensor position. If the time between the manual feed sensor “make” and “break” is more than a small amount greater than the expected time (the length of the sheet times the rate at which the sheet is intended to be moving), then a fault condition exists. In current laser printers when this sort of fault condition is detected, printing operation is stopped, a paper jam message is posted, and user intervention is required to clear media sheets from the printer.
This invention works to separate sheets to automatically recover from such a fault condition.